What are you currently doing for work and how did you get this point?
I manage general matters including mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, commercial transactions, litigation, dispute resolution, settlements, employment, real property, data privacy, governance, risk and compliance (GRC), insurance, intellectual property and management of inside and outside counsel, among others. I won Outstanding General Counsel, Small Legal Department, for the North Texas region from D CEO Corporate Counsel Awards in late 2022. My path to here: senior vice president, general counsel and secretary from 2016 to 2020 at Vertafore, Inc., which was a private equity owned insurance software company (sponsors were Vista Equity Partners and Bain Capital) that sold in late 2020 to Roper Technologies, Inc., a NYSE publicly traded company for about $5.4 billion. At Vertafore, I managed general legal matters plus information risk management operations, information security and compliance, and the company’s leasing and facilities management operations worldwide including India and Canada, and was a member of the executive leadership team, Site Leader for the company’s Denver headquarters office, executive sponsor of two employee resource groups and a member of the company’s executive Covid-19 taskforce. Before joining Vertafore, I was senior vice president, general counsel and secretary at Epiq Systems, Inc., a formerly publicly traded company, where I served for 11 years before the company went private in late 2016. Prior to Epiq, I worked with Hon. Lisa Hill Fenning (Ret.) at Dewey Ballantine LLP in Los Angeles, representing creditors in the Worldcom Chapter 11 case, five aircraft lessors and two real property lessors holding filed claims of nearly $1 billion in the United Air Lines Chapter 11 case. I also represented ABC/ESPN in the restructuring of its contracts with Adelphia Communications and the resolution of existing contract issues and claims in the Adelphia Chapter 11 case, among others. Prior to that, I practiced corporate M&A and business financial restructuring law at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York, representing corporate clients including Enron Corp. in its Chapter 11 restructuring for several years; Hughes Electronics Corp. in the sale of its satellite business and broadband communications division to The Boeing Company for $3.75 billion; Old Mutual Plc. in its acquisition including a tender offer of United Asset Management Corp. for $1.46 billion; Six Flags, Inc. in its acquisition of a 230-acre marine wildlife park (Sea World); Urban Box Office.com in multiple rounds of private equity financing; and John Wiley &; Sons, Inc. in its purchase of the Hungry Minds, Inc. franchise (the “For Dummies” series) for $300 million through a merger and tender offer. I also served as law clerk for two years to Chief Judge Mark W. Vaughn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Hampshire, who also served as a Bankruptcy Appellate Judge for the First Circuit. As law clerk, I authored over 60 opinions for the Bankruptcy Court and Bankruptcy Appellate Court, one of which, Young v. United States, was affirmed by the First Circuit and unanimously affirmed (Scalia, J.) by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002.
How did your education in your major and COLA prepare you for life after college?
It taught me how to learn and how to think critically. It made me creative and love learning. The fact that UNH allowed me to expand and be innovative in my degree put me on a path that unwaveringly has brought me to present day.
What person or course most influenced you while at UNH?
Susan Menell and David Andrew. Both of them were incredible — compassionate, witty, trusting, brilliant. They pushed me and believed in me.
What advice do you have for students interested in your field?
Go for it — it's going to serve you incredibly well and set you up for success no matter what you choose to do because it will teach you how to think and write critically.
